Why do I love my country?

The question itself has the answer - my country - it is my country and I love it more than any other country in the world.

India has a lot of positives and may be some more negatives; but then every country in the world has those - some or other - more or less.
But I love the fact that we are growing.
- We have grown at a rate of 9% for past 5 years which has not happened for any other country in the world.
- Infrastructure in our cities is going under massive restructurings.
- Our literacy rate is better than ever and we are making progress.
- Our highway infrastructure is getting better.
- We think our politicians are still corrupt but at the same time we know that at least some of them are genuinely honest.

But at the same time 30-40 % of us live below poverty line - they may not be able to manage even 2 meals in a day.
- Our cities are flooding with more and more shopping malls and sky scrapers but at the same time number of slums is ever increasing as well.
- More and more people are migrating towards cities - which are more and more congested and polluted.
- Child labor is uncontrollable and beggars are sprawling all over.

There are many more similar challenges facing us and I am sure we will get there one day when this list of challenges will get smaller and smaller. So in spite of all these negatives, I still love my country - because it’s my country.

I consider that our biggest weakness - our ever growing population - has become our biggest strength in today's time. The outsourcing wave - be it IT, call centers or anything else has contributed significantly towards the nation's growth in past few years. As a result - indirectly - our spending power has increased many folds and as a result we are an ever growing market. This - I believe - is and going to be one of the fundamental reasons why the world cannot ignore us.

I am writing this just minutes after several bomb blasts have rocked our capital. Several people have been killed and many more been injured. I am deeply saddened because of this - specially having watched the movie Mumbai Meri Jaan very recently I can almost visualize the scenes in Delhi right now and my heart grieves. I pray to God with all the sincerity that there be an end to all these acts of heinous crimes. Hey dear God, please give the people affected by this blast strength to bear their losses and most important of all - please give our government some wise thoughts to take strong action for preventing such incidents in future and catch the ones behind these blasts.